Nelson's battles

Horatio Nelson was the greatest naval commander of his age. In this masterly analysis of his fighting career, the acclaimed naval historian Oliver Warner examines every battle in which he participated, but concentrates on the three in which his command as an admiral was crucial. The first was the Battle of the Nile in which the bulk of Napoleon's fleet was brilliantly destroyed, so eliminating the risk to Britain's Indian possessions. In 1801 under Sir Hyde Parker he fought the Battle of Copenhagen, which ensured the supply of Scandinavian spars that kept the Royal Navy in fighting trim. Nelson's final battle at Trafalgar in which the French and Spanish fleets were shattered bore out the truth of the Earl St Vincent's earlier reply when asked if the French could invade England: 'I do not say that they cannot come, but I do say that they cannot come by sea'.